From the LA Times comes a story about a fired Toyota staff lawyer who is alleging that he had instructions to conceal design weaknesses in the roofs of Toyota SUVs and trucks.

Aside from whether he's simply a disgruntled lawyer suing over his discharge is the question of whether he's telling the truth about the roofs. If so, those of us driving those vehicles need to be made aware of a risk they didn't know about.

Victims in these cases, often seriously injured or killed because of crushed roofs, contended in their lawsuits that injuries and deaths were a direct result of Toyota's weak roofs.

According to Biller's suit, Toyota repeatedly concealed information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Toyota's compliance with regulations for roof strength. The company went through a "relentless effort to prevent evidence of its vehicles' structural shortcomings from being known," the lawsuit said.